This Week in TV: A Guide to New and Returning Series

In this story

From college football to 'Jack Ryan,' The Hollywood Reporter highlights the biggest premieres in the week of Aug. 27-Sept. 2.

In a TV landscape littered with more than 500 scripted originals and another 700 reality and docuseries, figuring out what to watch can feel like a Herculean task.

The week of Aug. 27-Sept. 2 essentially marks the last week of summer, before a slew of cable shows (and a couple broadcast ones) get a jump on fall just after Labor Day. Even so, more than 20 series have season or series premieres during the week. The Hollywood Reporter is sorting through the lineup to highlight the most anticipated new and returning shows on broadcast, cable and streaming. Here's what to watch for the week of Aug. 27. (You should also bookmark THR's handy guide for key premiere and finale dates.)

On broadcast …

The college football season begins in earnest this week, and there are primetime games Saturday on three networks. ABC has defending national champion Alabama vs. Louisville; NBC has Michigan at Notre Dame; and Fox has Nebraska hosting Akron.

The third season of OWN's drama Greenleaf promises escalating family tension as the bishop (Keith David) and Lady Mae's (Lynn Whitfield) marriage cracks, secrets are kept and revealed — and the feds become increasingly interested in the church's finances.

Airs: Tuesday and Wednesday at 10 p.m. ET/PT (OWN)

On streaming …

John Krasinski steps into the shoes of Tom Clancy's best-known character in Jack Ryan, whose eight-episode first season drops Friday on Amazon Prime. The CIA analyst will spend the first season tracking and trying to stop a terrorist plot. THR's review of the Carlton Cuse/Graham Roland-produced series calls it a very well-executed if rather familiar story.

In case you missed it …

The Innocents is a slow burn, so much so that THR's review notes that the eight episodes of season one are not a ton more than "the most preliminary of primers to its premise." But the leads (Sorcha Groundsell and Percelle Ascott) help carry the exposition-heavy story, and the combination of star-crossed romance and supernatural elements is a tried-and-true formula in the YA space. It is streaming on Netflix.